Question
QUESTION: Dr. Berger, I have been recommeded by my eye doctor's office to use a solution called Clear Care. I think I'm allergic to opti-free because it caused redness. Clear care supposedly is better. Well I'm willing to try it but I'm confused about something. Well, the solutions I have used in the past has always allowed me to squirt some on the contacts and I can put it in my eyes immediately. But this solution requires soaking for at least 6 hours before putting it in the eye. Well, let's say what if after 6 hours I accidentallly drop my contacts on the floor (happens to me from time to time), and I need solution to moisturize it and to get the bacteria out, then I can't just squirt some clear care onto it because it'll sting my eye. Or in instances where my contacts fall off and I need the solution to put it back on right away. This is an unusual procedure. How do I take care of that if that were to happen? With other solutions, I can freely just put some on my contacts and put it in my eye, no issue. Well with clear care, it seems more complicated. The whole having to soak for 6 hours first is not exactly "convenient". Please let me know.
ANSWER: Hi Marie; Please understand that Clear Care like AO Sept is a hydrogen peroxide based disinfectant system and is NEVER instilled in the eye. If you drop the lens on the floor you will need to rinse thoroughly with normal saline solution, not the Clear care. The idea of a six hour soak is to disinfect while you are sleeping so as to not cause any inconvenience and kill all the "bugs". After such a soak, the lenses need to be rinsed with saline prior to to inserting on the eye. Hope this helps you out.
Dr. Ken
Also understand that if the hydrogen peroxide is not neutralized and put into the eye it will burn, sting, cause redness and possibly swelling and needs to be rinsed out asap and treated to prevent chemical keratitis and conjunctivitis
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QUESTION: So, when using clear care, do you only soak it overnight everyday? So if rinsing is necessary during the daytime (when you drop it or sometimes you feel like something is in your contacts and you just need to take it out and put it back in) then you use saline during that? So basically, clear care needs to be coupled with saline?
Also, when you rinse the lenses with saline, and then you use opti-free then does that mean you are "mixing the solutions" because isn't saline neutral to all solutions, so you can rinse it out with saline and then change it to another solution?
Answer
Again, you can use saline as a rinsing agent with ANY type of disinfectant/cleaning system for soft (hydrogel) contact lenses. Even if you need to remove your lenses temporarily, you can rinse with saline and reinsert; however, the 4-6 hour disinfectant cycle is done daily (preferably while you sleep) with Clear Care , Optifree Replenish, AO Sept, Complete, Renew, ANYTHING
Hope this is clear to you now, Dr. Ken
